Easy winter venison stew with dried cherries and red wine

Hearty winter stew with lots of vegetables

This is a perfect recipe for cold winter nights when you have guests over for dinner. The venison in combination with red wine give it a lovely substance with hints of sweetness from the dries cherries. The root vegetable round everything up. It is really really delicious :). 

In terms of heath this recipe features lots of lean protein and vegetables and all the benefits of grape juice aka wine ;). Also, this is a really easy recipe to prepare; you basically just throw everything in a pot and let it simmer for a few hours.

Just one thing: make sure that you use a really big pot, it’s a lots of meat and vegetables that go into this lovely venison stew! Also, the venison will take around 3 hours until it is fully cooked through, so give it time. Trust me, it’s worth it – the meat will fall apart on your tongue. 🙂

Ok, let’s get going!

Serves 8

Ingredients

1kg vension meat, cubed
1.5 bottles dry red wine
1l water
1 large red onion, finely chopped
3 large carrots, finely chopped
2 large parsnips, finely chopped
400g celeriac, finely chopped
1 can (400g) tinned tomatoes
20g flour
2 cinnamon sticks
3 bay leaves
1 stalk rosemary
1 vanilla pod, scored & seeds removed
200g dried cherries
salt, pepper

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160ºC/325ºF/gas 3.

2. Place the venison in a bowl, add the flour and mix well so that the meat is covered with flour.

3. In a large pot, heat a lug of oil. Add the venison and onion and fry at high heat until the meat is browned all over. Reduce to medium heat and add celeriac, carrot and parsnip and cook for about 5-10 minutes or until the vegetables start to soften.

4. Add tinned tomatoes, red wine, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, rosemary, vanilla seeds and pod, dried cherries and water.

5. Season with salt and black pepper, reduce the heat, cover with a lid and cook for 3 to 4 hours, or until the meat is tender and pulls apart easily with forks. If necessary, add a bit more water.

6. Serve with dumplings or mashed potatoes and a nice glass of red wine.

Enjoy! 🙂